CONTACTS 

SUBJECTS
Human Cognition Strengths and Weaknesses
Correct Language
Precision Use of Language

0605 -
0605 -    ..
0606 - Summary/Objective
0607 -
060701 - Follow up ref SDS 35 0000. ref SDS 34 0000.
060702 -
060703 - Talked with Rod yesterday about the amount of domain expertise
060704 - required to be effective with SDS in that domain.
060706 -  ..
060707 - Rod and I have both had experience with going into an area with which
060708 - we were largely or sometimes totally unfamiliar and dealing with it
060709 - easily.
060711 -  ..
060712 - There are numerous examples of people who didn't do as well:
060713 -
060714 -    1.  An Office Assistant was asked to take notes at a standing
060715 -        management meeting and found herself hopelessly lost because of
060716 -        the acronyms and the terminology.  She had no idea what to
060717 -        write down.  Eventually the notes she was asked to take simply
060718 -        stopped, and the task was never reassigned.
060720 -         ..
060721 -    2.  One person had a friend who spoke more Spanish than English,
060722 -        and wanted to write a letter explaining some important
060723 -        metaphysical concepts. He wrote the letter in English and had
060724 -        it profesionally translated. He reported that his friend
060725 -        treated him differently after that.
060727 -         ..
060728 -        He had an opportunity to have a different professional
060729 -        translate the Spanish letter back into English, and he was
060730 -        quite surprised to find that the result bore only passing
060731 -        resemblance to the original.
060733 -         ..
060734 -        The translators were well intentioned and competent, but their
060735 -        lack of understanding of the subject matter rendered their
060736 -        efforts ineffectual.
060738 -         ..
060739 -    3.  Rod reported similar problems in court transcripts, and it is
060740 -        present in notes taken at engineering meetings. Words are
060741 -        mis-heard because they are unfamiliar, and the spelling is
060742 -        usually wrong, even phonetically.
060743 -
060744 -
060746 -  ..
060747 - Misunderstood Words
060748 -
060749 - There is a phenomenon of misunderstood words: when a person passes a
060750 - word that he fails to understand, there is a blankness in the
060751 - material that immediately follows. Once he gets the word defined and
060752 - rereads the material, it will seem that information has been added
060753 - since he read it originally.
060755 -  ..
060756 - It is possible for someone who understands the problem of terminology
060757 - and language to cope in a new area by recognizing what he fails to
060758 - grasp and getting the language defined. This can happen rather
060759 - quickly.
060760 -
060761 -    For areas in which the language is not overly specialized, this is
060762 -    adequate. A person can come up to sufficient understanding to
060763 -    create solid SDS records in a relatively short time. He will not
060764 -    become a Subject Matter Expert (SME) in that time, but he will be
060765 -    able to read, hear, comprehend, and write the language. The more
060766 -    technical the area and the discussions, the more difficult this
060767 -    task is.
060769 -  ..
060770 - As a generalist and a consultant, I have been exposed to the
060771 - situation many times, and have learned to deal with it very
060772 - effectively. This is due to having developed techniques and mindsets
060773 - that help in the process. Not everyone can do it.
060774 -
060775 -    I have a reputation for taking excellent notes and getting more
060776 -    out of meetings than most people. Those times that I have had
060777 -    other people taking notes for a meeting, the quality and volume
060778 -    has been disappointing.
060779 -
060780 -
060782 -  ..
060783 - Detail, Accuracy, and Importance
060784 - Precision in Language
060785 -
060786 - Part of the mindset required is an understanding that details which
060787 - may seem unimportant at the moment will often turn out to be
060788 - important later, so it is important to capture details, as they will
060789 - be forgotten first, leaving only the "gist" of the story.
060791 -  ..
060792 - Language can be used with precision, but it requires a great deal of
060793 - skill and determination.  Most people are not used to the concept of
060794 - language as a precision tool.  Definitions are imprecise or
060795 - non-existent.  Indentities, similarities, and differences are not
060796 - analyzed and expressed.
060797 -
060798 -    It is all too common for the same term to mean more than one thing
060799 -    or to have different definitions, and for several words or phrases
060800 -    to be used to denote the same thing.
060802 -     ..
060803 -    Everybody assumes that they understood, but experience shows that
060804 -    when the similarities and distinctions are resolved, meanings and
060805 -    the understanding of those meanings vary dramatically.
060806 -
060807 -
060809 -  ..
060810 - Hooks and Hierarchical Knowledge
060811 - Definitions of Terms and Acronyms
060812 -
060813 - There are some very valuable techniques for coming up to speed in a
060814 - new area quickly.
060815 -
060816 -    1.  Keep a list of definitions and acronyms.
060817 -
060818 -        I start an acronym list as one of the first activities on any
060819 -        new assignment. It has at least these columns:
060820 -
060821 -           1.  Acronym
060823 -                ..
060824 -           2.  Term - the expansion of an acronym or a phrase to be
060825 -               defined.
060827 -                ..
060828 -           3.  Definition - an explanation of what the term means.
060829 -               Just knowing what an acronym expands to isn't enough to
060830 -               tell you what it means.
060832 -         ..
060833 -    2.  Build multiple layers of the picture concurrently.
060834 -
060835 -        Understand the issues from big picture to details. Add
060836 -        information in its place anytime you find it. If you don't
060837 -        know where it fits, make another place. Connect the dots
060838 -        whenever possible.
060840 -         ..
060841 -        Rod uses the Subject Index for this. It is precisely the
060842 -        unknown nature of the structure that leads to the desire to
060843 -        restructure the Subject Index over time. This is a weak area in
060844 -        the current SDS design.
060845 -
060846 -
060847 -
060848 -
060849 -
060850 -
0609 -